Technology, mass media and the Victorian Age is the subject of a talk set for 11:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 27, in 130 Colson Hall on West Virginia University s Downtown Campus.

Linda Hughes , Addie Levy Professor at Texas Christian University , will discuss how technology shaped the mass media boom of the Victorian era and how the new digital technology of today is preserving that eras resources for future scholars.

Her talkSideways! Navigating the Materiality of Print Cultureis part of this years Jackson Distinguished Lecture Series presented by WVU s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English . The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hughes will discuss the first mass-media era of the 19th century when new technologies and distribution systems carried printed images and text to millions. Her lecture will examine the literary and cultural history of Victorian Britain periodicals as an inseparable part of media history and how recent digitalized pages of print from that era will become a resource that influences Victorian studies for decades to come.

Hughes specializes in Victorian literature, poetry and periodicals, and gender and publishing history. She serves on the editorial board of Victorian Poetry, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies and Literature Compass. She is also the author of many works, includingGraham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of LettersandThe Manyfaced Glass: Tennysons Dramatic Monologues.

She earned a bachelors degree from Wichita State University in 1970 and masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1971 and 1976, respectively.

For more information, contact Donald Hall , chair of the Department of English, at 304-293-3100 or ” Donald.Hall@mail.wvu.edu rel=nofollow> Donald.Hall@mail.wvu.edu .